One Heart Foundation Receives 2010 Best of Orem Award

U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

NEW YORK, NY, May 21, 2010 -- For the second consecutive year, One Heart Foundation has been selected for the 2010 Best of Orem Award in the Charitable Institutions category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Nationwide, only 1 in 70 (1.4%) 2010 Award recipients qualified as two-time Award Winners. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2010 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

Congratulations to Alan & Suzanne Osmond and the One Heart Foundation for again being chosen among the finest.

Land's End and One Heart Challenge

Family and Friends,

One of the distribution sources of the almost 30,000 caps of the Lands’ End Challenge was via the Lunchboxers who help feed Families in need!
Some of the caps went to Homeless Families and these went to children in families with needs, especially during these past cold winter days!
Scott who was in charge of this group reports: “These caps were received very well and I wanted to let all of the others who worked with us on our One Heart Campaign to know how much Good can be done when we work together and reach out to others”!

As the lyric from the song One Heart says:
“When the Love for another makes a stranger your Brother then you’re ONE!

Thanks to everyone involved for being of “One Heart”!

Alan & Suzanne Osmond
http://oneheart.org

Lands' End FeelGood Initiative Reaches Goal Warms Over 25,000 Hearts and Heads This Season

DODGEVILLE, Wis., Dec. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- It took four months, more than 5,000 pounds of donated yarn and hundreds of talented volunteers to knit over 25,000 hats for homeless individuals across the country as part of the Lands' End FeelGood initiative. Lands' End kicked off the FeelGood campaign in September in an effort to warm the homeless and displaced this season. For every Lands' End FeelGood sweater purchased, the company donated signature FeelGood yarn to One Heart Foundation's Warming Families, a nationwide knitting charity. Hundreds of volunteer knitters embraced the challenge many knitting for the entire four months resulting in a total of 29,560 hats knitted and donated to homeless organizations from coast to coast.

"The results of this campaign are simply heart warming," said Nick Coe, president, Lands' End. "We are truly grateful to the volunteers that donated their time and talents to such a rewarding and meaningful effort."

Lands' End donated more than 5,000 pounds of proprietary FeelGood yarn that is as soft as cashmere but offers the durability and value of cotton. The company offers a FeelGood sweater collection in a variety sweater styles for women and wanted to find a way to utilize the yarn in a meaningful way this season.

As a result, yarn was delivered to hundreds of Warming Family volunteers as well as Lands' End employees and local community members. Vickie Howell, best-selling craft author, knitting personality and host of TV's Knitty Gritty also worked with Lands' End to help instruct novice knitters, create hat patterns for the campaign and to host "knit out" events to keep the momentum going. Additionally New York Times best-selling author Kate Jacobs supported the initiative by joining knit outs across the country and reading from The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit the Season.

"We are thrilled that our volunteer knitters have accomplished the amazing goal of knitting thousands of hats and meeting our mission of helping families," said Alan Osmond, Warming Families. "Through yarn donations and knitting by our volunteers, we were able to help thousands of families in need this winter. We thank the volunteers for sharing their hearts this season."

About Warming Families

Warming Families, a project of the One Heart Foundation www.oneheart.org, is a 100% volunteer project that delivers blankets and other warm items to the homeless and displaced while strengthening families through charity work. At the heart of this project are area volunteers who function to coordinate efforts and locate and supply local shelters and nursing homes.

SOURCE

Lands’ End FeelGood Collection and Campaign to Benefit Nation’s Homeless

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lands’ End FeelGood Collection and Campaign to Benefit Nation’s Homeless
Buy a FeelGood Sweaters and Accessories and Lands’ End
Will Donate a Pound of FeelGood Yarn to Volunteer Knitters

DODGEVILLE, Wis. – July 15, 2009 – Want to feel good about shopping and giving? This fall, Lands’ End will kick off the FeelGood Campaign, a fun way to shop and feel good about giving to homeless individuals and families across the country. Beginning on September 1st, for every Lands’ End FeelGood item purchased, the company will donate a pound of signature FeelGood yarn to One Heart Foundation’s Warming Families, a nationwide knitting charity. Lands’ End expects to donate thousands of pounds of yarn to Warming Families chapters where volunteers plan to knit up to 25,000 hats and other items to warm the homeless and displaced.

The new FeelGood collection from Lands’ End is made from proprietary yarn that is as soft as cashmere yet features the durability and price of cotton. The collection features a variety of sweater styles, gloves and scarves for women in rich autumnal colors such as Aztec Gold, Charcoal Heather and Winter Violet. The FeelGood sweater is available in a Cable or Striped Cardigan ($69.50) and Turtleneck ($59.50). Items from the FeelGood collection can be purchased online at www.landsend.com, by calling 1(800) 800-5800 and by visiting the Lands' End Shops at Sears. Yarn donations will be made to volunteer knitters throughout the season.

“With a simple purchase, anyone can give back this fall,” said Susan Sachatello, Lands’ End senior vice president of marketing. “We are thrilled to work with Warming Families and appreciate the hundreds of knitters donating their time and talent for this great cause.”
Vickie Howell, national knitting personality and host of the DIY Network’s Knitty Gritty is also working with Lands’ End to help instruct novice knitters as well as create hat patterns for the campaign. Vickie is creating a ribbed-knit hat pattern in an adult and child size, exclusively for the initiative. Lands’ End will share the patterns as well as provide additional information about how all knitters can lend a hand at www.landsend.com/feelgood.


About Lands’ End
Lands’ End® is one of the world’s largest retailers of casual and tailored clothing for women, men, children and infants around the world. In addition, Lands’ End offers an innovative collection of fine-quality goods for the home. Lands’ End merchandise can be purchased online at www.landsend.com, by calling 1-800-800-5800 and by visiting the Lands’ End Shops at Sears. Lands’ End is a proud member of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD). And, all high-quality Lands’ End merchandise is Guaranteed. Period.®

About Warming Families
Warming Families, a project of the One Heart Foundation, is a 100% volunteer project that delivers blankets and other warm items to the homeless and displaced while strengthening families through charity work. At the heart of this project are area volunteers who function to coordinate efforts and locate and supply local shelters and nursing homes.

###

Join One Hearts in helping Homeless Families

PLEASE JOIN ONEHEART.ORG & WARMINGFAMILIES.COM!

We are teaming up to make cams to "Warm Homeless Families" before Christmas!
Kaye, our director says: "It doesn't matter, whether you crochet, knit, loom
or sew, you can create hats."
Join us at: http://warmingfamilies.ning.com and http://oneheart.org
Alan Osmond

Helping All Charities Be of ONE HEART

Alan & Suzanne Osmond founded One Heart International, a non-profit organization designed to strengthen families and bring charities together by helping raise awareness and funds for worthwhile causes and organizations back in 1996. Over the past 12 years they have sought to unify charities for the good of all mankind, helping them to be "of One Heart."

This year, One Heart was selected as the exclusive charity for a new professional fund-raising organization called, uPlej (pronounced, "You Pledge"). uPlej.com is a new social networking site that is designed to help raise funds and awareness for YOUR favorite charities. One Heart helps to facilitate the donations to each of the selected charities without ever taking any percentage. The only way One Heart is sustained financially through uPlej is if YOU join THEIR uPlej network (www.uPlej.com/OneHeart) and/or choose them as YOUR charity of choice. What's nice about uPlej is that they allow you can change your charity every single month and spread the love to various causes.

uPlej is breaking down the walls between charities by helping them to come together. When one charity receives a donation on uPlej, so do 3 other charities (See the Donor Program info attached below). In fact, politicians in Utah have said that uPlej is "Brilliant" because it, "democratizes charitable giving." Now the small charities have equal opportunity to make just as much as the "Big Boys" who get all the donations. Governor Huntsman, upon learning about the uPlej model said, "Thank you so much for bringing charity to the youth." Even Utah's own Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff is a "uPlejer." The beautiful part about it all is that One Heart stands at the forefront of it all and is the charity that is helping to make it all possible.

Alan & Suzanne Osmond would like to invite YOU to join their FREE uPlej charity network by going to www.uPlej.com/OneHeart and clicking the little orange button that says, "Join FREE." Once you've filled out your information, be sure to login to the system by entering your username and password and then click "Edit User Profile." This will allow you to build a profile page on uPlej (similar to a Myspace of Facebook page). Once you've done that, you are ready to start inviting YOUR friends to join YOUR uPlej network. The more people that join YOUR network, the BIGGER the impact for YOUR favorite charities. Even if you choose to support a different charity than One Heart, so long as you are in their network, you are still supporting One Heart. "I want to invite all people everywhere to get involved and help make a difference for charity," said Alan Osmond. "uPlej is the best mechanism that I have found that allows you to give BIG without breaking the bank. And that's good news in today's economy!!!"

uPlej is FREE to join. Alan's son Nathan Osmond has already raised over $3,900 for charity over the past couple of months, simply by inviting people to join his uPlej network. Go to www.uPlej.com/OneHeart TODAY and become a "uPlejer" yourself. You'll
be glad you did!!!

Osmond brother to speak at State of Family Summit

By JENNIFER DEAN
The Press-Enterprise

The positive aspects of family will be honored Wednesday at the Family Service Association's State of the Family Summit at the Moreno Valley Conference Center.

Alan Osmond, eldest of the Osmond Brothers, will be the guest speaker at the event.

Osmond, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 22 years ago, stepped off the stage as a performer to begin a new career in motivational speaking, writing and creating family-oriented media.

At the summit he will talk about the One Heart Foundation, a nonprofit organization that brings charities together for worthwhile causes. The foundation is the brainchild of Osmond and his wife, Suzanne.

MORE

Nathan Osmond Introduces uPlej

Edmund Burke once said, "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could do so little." That is why I have joined uPlej. I believe a little bit goes a long way. "Give a little bit!" I come from a family of entertainers called, The Osmonds. You might remember them from the 1970s. I got my start on the Donny & Marie Show as a child and have been singing ever since. I've had success in Europe and in Asia and I am currently working on my debut country album. I guess you could say, "I'm a little bit Country!!!" Ha! (See nathanosmond.com for biography)

I would like to personally invite you to JOIN MY uPlej NETWORK to help me raise money for several charities that are near and dear to my heart.

My grandmother Osmond was the one who started the CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK. I have been in the hospitals and have sung for those children. They are an amazing charity and I would like to help support their cause.

I am also supporting AUTISM SPEAKS because my oldest son is on the autism spectrum. I called up the founders of Autism Speaks the other day just to say thank you for all they have done to educate us about autism and what we can do to help our son.

I have also selected ONE HEART as one of my charities. For 12 years they have served as an umbrella charity and voice peace for good causes. Their entire mission is to unite charities by being of "one heart." We are all God's kids and it is important to strengthen "The Family."

By JOINING MY uPlej NETWORK, you can choose the charity of your choice and get involved. By so doing, you are supporting the charities that I have selected. Please spread the word. Together we can be somebody's silent hero. My grandmother, before she passed away, said something that resonates with me today. She said, "It's amazing what we can accomplish when we don't care who gets the credit." How true!!! Please join my network TODAY and together, let's do some good.

God bless,
Nathan Osmond
Philippians 1:3


If you're interested, you can sign up under either Nathan or Alan. Visit their uPlej pages at:
www.uPlej.com/nathanosmond or www.uplej.com/alanosmond

The Effects of Music in Our Lives

By

Amy Osmond

Have you ever protested a song your child was singing, and you heard him say, “Mom, it’s just a song?” That happened to me with my five-year-old! The other day, my little kindergartener, Maia, was narrating her life in song. While I can’t remember the exact words, she sang something like “I’m mad that you won’t let me stay up late; some people don’t like me, and my mom punished me.” I walked into her room, heard the song, and said, “Maia, that’s not true at all!” She replied matter-of-factly, “Mom, it’s just a song.” Then she went back to singing her sad, sad autobiographical narrative.

Well, as adults, we know that music is not “just a song.” In academic journals, music has been found to affect everything from listening to reading comprehension to stress to brain activity to blood pressure to depression—and the list goes on and on (Palmer et al., 1991; Angelucci et al., 2007).

But how does music affect the lives of our children? When we think of music in the context of our children, we often think about the deleterious effects that it can have in their lives. From my perspective there are a few things we can do to help our children choose good music.

First, remember that music can have multiple interpretations. My father is Wayne Osmond, one of the Osmond family. In the 1970s, the Osmond Brothers’ musical career reached its peak with several hit records. One of the most influential songs of their career was a song that the brothers wrote called “Crazy Horses.” Considered heavy for its time, it was banned in Africa because it was thought to be about drug abuse. In reality, “crazy horses” was about fast cars, with “horse” referring to horsepower.”

It can work the other way, however. I remember one of my favorite songs a couple of years ago was an R&B song called, “Suga Suga, How you get so fly.” I even put it on a CD that I made for my husband, Jeff. As I listened to the song more, the lyrics started becoming more clear--and they were really risque. Now I can’t hear the song without thinking about those lyrics; and if I, as an adult, am affected by musical lyrics, our impressionable children and teenagers most certainly are.

Like my previous example, in today’s age, lyrics are often sexually explicit and thinly veiled, if at all. But there is still some room for interpretation, and different music can affect different people in different ways. An interesting study in 2007 reported that listening to self-selected or classical music, after exposure to a stressor, significantly reduced negative emotional states and physiological arousal compared to listening to heavy metal music or sitting in silence (Labbe et al., 2007). It actually didn’t matter what kind the music was, as long as it was self-selected. So when your children say that rock music helps them relax, maybe it actually does.

Second, you can find good and bad music in every genre. My father is a pop-turned-rock-turned-country-turned-variety music singer. My mother is an opera singer. Between the two of them and my own training as a classical musician, I have been exposed to practically every type of music possible. I have to admit that I find some rock music to be absolutely beautiful, some hip-hop music to be politically and socially profound, and some modern instrumental music to be—dare I say it---absolute garbage. The key is being able to differentiate between the good and the bad. By bad, I mean degrading to the soul.

So how do we help our children avoid degrading music? Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and President of the LDS Church, Ezra Taft Benson, in a 1979 address at Brigham Young University, offered some guidelines to help us evaluate whether media is degrading. While he was speaking mostly of books in this address, it applies to music, as well. I quote:

Today, with the abundance of books available, it is the mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read [or listen to] … As John Wesley’s mother counseled him: ‘Avoid [1] whatever weakens your reason, [2] impairs the tenderness of your conscience, [3] obscures your sense of God, [4] takes off your relish for spiritual things, … [5] increases the authority of the body over the mind. . . Do not make your mind a dumping ground for other people’s garbage. It is harder to purge the mind of rotten reading than to purge the body of rotten food, and it is more damaging to the soul. (Benson, 1980)

Third, consider the culture and the context in which music is performed. I currently teach an American Pop Culture class at Arizona State University. Music is obviously a very important part of popular culture. One of the most interesting things about music in pop culture is its ability to be mainstreamed and co-opted by the public. Jazz, for example, was once considered a degenerate form of music. Even the term “Jazz” was a slang term for “sex.” Over time, however, the word lost its connotative meaning and became mainstreamed into larger segments of society. Now, Jazz is a part of high culture, often associated with the intellectual and upper class.

Other music can take more degenerate turns. Hip hop music, for example, began in the black community as a musical outlet to promote political and social change. In recent years, however, as hip hop music has, again, become mainstreamed, much of the positive social message is gone from its lyrics, replaced by a dominant focus on the party scene, with sex, drugs, and violence being key features.

When considering what music to allow in your home, I believe it is very important to determine what the culture surrounding it promotes. One example is an emerging form of music, called Hyphy, which is a type of hip-hop music based largely in the San Francisco Bay area. This type of music is fun to listen to with its up-tempo beat, but it is heavily associated with the party scene. One particular feature of hyphy culture is a “sideshow,” where one or more cars does multiple doughnuts by braking and turning at high speeds. Hyphy participants also practice “yoking,” or driving while quickly alternating between stomping on the gas and brake, and “ghost riding the whip,” where a driver walks alongside a slow-rolling car with the door open, while passengers leap out of moving cars and dance on the hood. Hyphy culture also focuses heavily on alcohol use, as well as drugs like cannabis and ecstasy. Dancing and partying almost always occurs while intoxicated.

So, if your teenager starts sporting saggy jeans, white t-shirts and “stunna shades” and says to you, “Mom, we’re gonna take the scraper and go to the yay to get stupid with grapes and rippers,” say “Absolutely not!” And take away their hyphy music.

My point is that, as parents, we need to educate ourselves about our children’s music and the culture it is associated with, so we can help them make good judgments about their music.

Finally, remember to focus on the beauty that music can bring to our children’s lives, as well as our own. In 1939, French composer Oliver Messiaen was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to a war camp but managed to keep his music bag. In the camp, he found moments for reading in the Revelation of St. John, the story of the angel who, his head surrounded by a rainbow, his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, announced the end of time. So Messiaen, to whom a non-Nazi officer occasionally gave a piece of bread, music paper and pencils, wrote a quartet called the Quattuor pour la fin du temps. It was even performed in the camp, on a piano with jamming keys, a cello with only three strings, and a clarinet with a molten key, and a violin. The quartet was an action which maintained dignity—a real action, written and performed, but at the same time also a symbolic one, integrating past with present, defying barbarism, transforming ugliness, maintaining a framework of subjective values against deficient reality” (Boesch, 1997, pp. 428-29). In short, Messiaen’s musical gifts combined with religious commitment allowed him to bring beauty to an ugly place.

In conclusion, music has the ability to affect our children’s lives significantly. And in helping them decide and monitor their music selections, we should remember that music can have multiple interpretations; good and bad music can be found in every genre; the culture and context in which the music is performed is perhaps even more important than the music, itself; and a positive and proactive approach to music can help us find and create music that uplifts us and brings beauty to our lives.

References

Angelucci, F., Ricci, E., Padua, L., Sabino, A., & Tonali, P. (2007). Music exposure differentially alters the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor in the mouse hypothalamus. Neuroscience Letters, 429 (2/3), pp. 152-55.

Benson, E. (1980). In His Steps. In Speeches of the Year. Provo: Brigham Young University Press, p. 61.

Boesch, E. (1997). Reasons for a symbolic concept of action. Culture and Psychology, 3.

Palmer, B., Sharp, M., Carter, B., & Roddenberry, Y. (1991). The effects of music and structured oral directions on auding and reading comprehension. International Journal of Listening, 5, pp. 7-21.

Labbe, E., Schmidt, N., Babin, J., & Pharr, M. (2007). Coping with stress: The effectiveness of different types of music. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, 32 (4), pp. 163-68.

Bio

Amy Osmond (Ph.D., a.b.d.) is a mass media instructor at Arizona State University. She teaches courses such as “Media and Society,” “Media Issues in American Pop Culture,” “Political Communication,” “War and Mass Media.” She has published articles relating to social justice, online teaching, and abuse of women and children and has presented at academic conferences on subjects such as women and child abuse, terrorism, and sociopathy. As a speaker for large civic and religious organizations, Amy has spoken on subjects such as teamwork and effects of music. Her academic interests center around two topics: abuse of women and children, and effects of mass media in society.

In addition to teaching mass media, Amy has some experience participating in mass media-related industries. The daughter of Wayne and Kathy Osmond, Amy has toured and performed for multiple years with the Osmond Brothers. A professional studio and solo violinist, she released her debut album, Nativity (a collection of traditional Christmas songs performed on the violin and harp), in 2004. Amy was also the national winner and spokesperson of America’s Junior Miss Scholarship Program in 1994. Amy has been featured in print publications such as People Magazine and USA Today and on television programs such as Good Morning America. She is currently the regional music director of her church and continues to perform on a regular basis.

While Amy is interested in numerous aspects of mass media, her favorite part about living in the digital age is being able to take advantage of new technology to fit a mother’s lifestyle. Fortunately, the classes she teaches are online, allowing her the opportunity to be at home full time with her children. She is married to Jeff Cook and is the proud mother of three (and a half!) beautiful children.

(This article will soon also be available on thefamily.com)

The One Heart Foundation Supports Warming Families

Warming Families ~ Warming the homeless 'families' of the world, one warm item at a time!

Warming Families is a volunteer project with a two-fold mission:

1) Provide much needed warm blankets and other warm items (hats, mittens, scarves, slippers, sweaters, teddy bears, etc.) to homeless families and individuals in shelters (homeless, domestic violence, orphanages, etc.) throughout the world.

And,

2) Provide a mechanism where families as well as other community groups and individuals can work together to provide these warm items.

Volunteers deliver these items to local shelters to be used by or given to the people that they service. Only new, either handmade or store bought items are delivered through this project,
giving a person who has been displaced from their home something brand new with which to keep warm.

Volunteers are needed in all areas of the United States and Canada.

Free crochet, knit and quilting patterns as well as ideas on how to 'strengthen families through charity work' can be found on the Warming Families website.
Web address: http://www.warmingfamilies.org/

Contact: Kaye Rogers, Project Leader uswarmingfamilies@yahoo.com
if you'd like to know more or become involved in this worthwhile project.